Another day, another new word

I was happy to hear that the nine year old was reading one of my favorite books in school. 

                                       

So when he was looking up vocabulary words for homework, I didn't think twice.

Until he came to me and said he couldn't find a word. 

Which word?

Castrate. 

I made him show me the word, 'cause it couldn't possibly be a word in the book, let alone a word he needed to look up for homework.

He showed me.  Pages 103-110 or so was all about how Old Yeller helped corral the hogs in order to clip their ears and castrate them. 

Funny how one forgets such things in the decades since one read one's favorite book.

I immediately started having flashbacks to the horribly hilarious essay the ten year old wrote for the same teacher when he had her last year.  We needed to avoid similar embarrassment.

So, I looked the word up in Webster.  It says, "to render impotent or deprive of vitality".  Funny, but clearly not helpful.

So I stalled.

Now, you may be wondering, "You live on a farm, and you raise pigs.  How do your children not know that word?"

Simple.  We're not real farmers.  We get our pigs when they are 40 pounds and well healed from their own castrations.

I explained to him that our pigs are castrated before they come to us.  That it is done to protect the taste of the meat.  Blah, blah, blah.

Then I just blurted it out. 

"They cut off its balls."

I can't believe the words came out of my mouth.  I hate that expression.  But when my boys say, "I got kicked in the...." that's what they say.  I don't know where they learned it.  I just know I needed to say something that he would understand clearly.

And did he ever.

His eyes bugged out, there was a long pause, and he said, "How am I supposed to write that?"

I suggested male body parts.

I don't know what he ended up writing.

I'm just grateful that this teacher doesn't require what many other teachers in the school do.  Their students have to draw pictures of their vocabulary words.

Have a lovely day!